Crawling and standing and falling, oh my

Bump goes the Carebear when she falls over! Her newest most favorite activity is standing, and although it isn’t too new (she’s been standing since she was 3 days old, no joke), she’s getting a whole lot more stable when she does stand. She can now stand by herself as long as she’s holding onto something. The most common something is her rainforest activity gym. The bars that cross over the top have four leaves coming out of the middle piece that holds the two bars together. She’s fascinated with these leaves and just loves being so close to them that she can chew on them, pull them out with her hands and her mouth, and basically stare at these felt beauties.

Eric and I took down our Christmas tree today (alas, did not bring it back to Ikea because we didn’t get an Ikea tree this year- this weekend was the tree return weekend but we did go this morning to get free breakfast <and I went on Thursday to get free breakfast and lightbulbs for $.99 for a 2 pack> I digress, back to the story), and we packed it up in storage containers to take out again next year. As we were taking the ornaments and lights off of the tree, Charis was happily standing at her gym. We were very close to her and monitored her every move, except for the one where she plucked the leaf out of her hand with such great force that it sent her entire little body toppling over onto the ground, where she hit her head with a thump. And a gasp from us to look and determine just how bad it was. And a pause from her to catch her breath. And a loud wail from her as we rushed to pick her up, leaf still held tightly in hand. She was OK a minute or so later, and went back to happily playing with her toys and gym.

This was the second total topple. The 1st happened last Sunday in the nursery (I was present, thank goodness!) at church. She was standing at a play toy and this whole standing thing was very new, so I should have been closer, but she was looking so stable and sure of herself that I was just past arms reach away from her. So I’m chatting with the nursery workers, when in slow motion, she topples over after glancing to her left (I can’t imagine how hard it is to have a head that totally throws you off balance!) and kabooms onto the ground. Same gasp, pause, wail, and pickup from Mom, and we’re OK not too long after.

I had a playdate with some friends Thursday morning and at least two babies hit their head while playing. It’s quite a bit shocking at first, but then it just becomes routine, and I believe that they’re stronger for it! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating pushing babies or anything, but it’s a (tough) lesson to learn, and I’m so thankful that babies are resilient when accidents do happen!